What's the latest to know about COVID, flu vaccines as respiratory virus season begins?
Vaccines lower the risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death.
November 2, 2023, 4:10 PM
As the United States heads into the cold-weather months, respiratory virus season has also arrived, with cases of influenza and COVID-19 likely to increase.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recommends that everyone 6 months and older stay up-to-date and get a flu vaccine and a COVID vaccine, and that it's safe to get both at the same time.
"For flu and COVID, not only does the vaccine reduce…the chance of getting sick, it certainly – even for those people who get sick – reduces their chance of getting severely sick," Dr. Cameron Wolfe, a professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Duke University School of Medicine, told ABC News.
Here's what you need to know about what vaccines are available, and who is eligible to receive them:
What to know about COVID-19 vaccines
For COVID-19, there is an updated vaccine that's formulated to target variants that are currently circulating that are related to XBB, an offshoot of the Omicron variant.
There are formulations made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna for those aged 6 months and older, and a formulation made by Novavax for those aged 12 and older.
"There's a different number of doses that you have to get depending on how many vaccines you've already received in the past," Dr. Shivanjali Shankaran, an associate professor in the department of internal medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Rush University in Chicago, told ABC News.
For those who are between 6 months and 4 years old, the CDC recommends getting two doses of Moderna or three doses of Pfizer if they are unvaccinated. If they've been previously vaccinated, the CDC recommends one or two doses of Moderna or Pfizer, depending on the previous number of doses.
For those aged 5 to 11, the CDC recommends one dose of either Moderna or Pfizer, regardless of previous vaccination status.
When it comes to Americans aged 12 and older, it's recommended that those who are unvaccinated receive one dose of Pfizer or Moderna or two doses of Novavax. Those who have been previously vaccinated are recommended to receive one dose of the Pfizer, Moderna or Novavax updated vaccine.
Those who are moderately or severely immunocompromised may require more doses.
"There's the gain for any individual by taking the vaccine and there's the most gain for people who are immunosuppressed, have heart or lung conditions, or older adults," Wolfe told ABC News. "You know, if you're a 25-year-old who lives with a patient who's had a lung transplant, this is not a bad thing for you to get. In fact, it would be highly encouraged."
What to know about flu vaccines
For the majority of those aged 6 months and older, the CDC recommends receiving the standard quadrivalent flu vaccine, which protects against four different strains of the virus. If this is an infant or child’s first time getting a flu vaccination they should get two doses this season, each at least four weeks apart.
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